From my previous update, we had 10 eggs retrieved last Thursday.  Of the 10, only 4 were mature which is horrible.  I wonder if they triggered and retrieved too early, not allowing the rest to mature.  Of the 4, only 2 fertilized which also isn't good.  Luckily both made it to transfer.  We were sweating bullets for three days hoping and praying we'd have something to transfer.  Our transfer was Sunday and both embryos were doing well at that time.  We were able to transfer two grade A embryos (one 8 cell and one 5 cell).  Embryos are given a grade based on how they look and how they divide, with grade A being the best. For day three transfer, they like to see between 6 to 8 cells.....one of ours was a little behind but at least was surviving.  The difficult part is that the grade of the embryo doesn't necessarily relate to pregnancy rates. Like everyone knows last time, both of our embryos were perfect, yet we didn't get pregnant.  Some people have horrible looking embryos, yet are able to have a baby.  As of now, it's strictly a waiting game.  By the mid to end of next week I'll have my blood test to see if this IVF worked and we can fulfill our dream of parenthood.  Until then, there is no way of knowing.  

Once the embryo is transferred, it must go through alot of critical changes.  Sometimes many arrest (stop growing) for no reason....from what I've read it usually it's because they have genetic abnormalities.  The embryos have to continue to divide until day 5 of life (two days after our 3 day transfer) to reach the blastocyst stage which is a critical point in development.  Once it reaches this phase (that would have been Tuesday for us), it hatches out of it's hard shell.  Sometimes embryos don't have enough energy to do so, so it dies.  We payed extra for assisted hatching.  Prior to transfer, the embryologist places a microscopic hole in the embryo to allow it to hatch with increased ease.  After it hatches, it starts to embed itself in the uterus and hopefully implants.  This process takes a few days and is where many IVFs fail.  Technology isn't advanced enough to assist with implantation or to understand reason for failure.  In an average healthy women, each month there is only a 20% chance of implantation....therefore we have about a 20% chance of this IVF working.  Not the best chances, but much better than our next to zero percent chances of getting pregnant without IVF.  To do what I can, I'm taking a progesterone hormone twice a day and am continuing with acupuncture twice a week.  We are leaking money faster than we are bringing it in at this point.  I can't face having to pay a debt off every month and be reminded of a failed procedure and an unfulfilled dream.  After this IVF, we need to throw in the towel....at least for a long long time (months to years), possibly forever as our finances don't allow for any more tries.  This year alone we paid more than $28,000 for treatments....it still makes me so angry that most women get pregnant for free and just don't understand how lucky they are.